Spring Season 2014

I am confused. I just went to the NYCB website to purchase tickets to several performances. The site show very few tickets available in most sections of the house. If this is the case they are close to selling out. if so why the concern about getting an audience in? If it's not the case are there hidden tickets somewhere?

The JR piece was always intended as a short term work that would not become part of the rep. The performances depend on the availabiltiy of LIl Buck. Nobody at NYCB performs "jookin" (nor should they). Actually, I think more young people know Lil Buck than JR. Lil Buck appeared with Madonna at the half time show for the SuperBowl a few years ago, and he makes regular appearances on rapper videos. He's a busy guy.

I got to see him as a guest performer at a Yo-Yo Ma performance within the last few years. He's moving pretty fluidly between popular and "artistic" performance settings.

Switching gears, the casting is up for week 3. It seems to be the season of Lauren Lovette. (No complaints about it from me.) She will debut in Raymonda Variations during week 3. Also a large number of exciting debuts in Robert Schumann's Davidsbundertanze during week 3.

That's some mighty interesting Davidsbündlertänze casting ... or should I say, wholesale recasting on a par with the raft of debuts in Liebeslieder a few seasons ago.

Is this how the two casts sort out? Everyone's listed as a debut, except Mearns, la Cour, Kowroski, and A. Stafford, so I assume those four are staying in the roles they've danced previously.

Mearns / la Cour = von Aroldingen / Lüders

Kowroski / J. Angle = Farrell / d'Amboise

Hyltin / Finlay = Mazzo / Andersen

A. Stafford / R. Fairchild = Watts / Martins

Reichlen / Janzen = von Aroldingen / Lüders

Krohn / Catazaro = Farrell / d'Amboise

Laracey / Suozzi = Mazzo / Andersen

T. Peck / T. Angle = Watts / Martins

It will be interesting to see what they do with it -- it's good to see some of the company's emerging talent in the mix, and it's good to see Davidsbündlertänze back on the schedule, too.

Yes, it is great to see this masterpiece Davidsbundlertanze back on the stage. It has been gone for too many years. I know some people find this ballet an unbearable bore, but I love it.

I do too. The formal-dress ballet I found an unbearable bore was Martin's A Schubertiad. Perhaps it would have improved on repeated viewings.

It was a choice of wandering the streets in the pouring rain in order to avoid Stravaganza or sitting in my seat. I sat in my seat. I chose the wrong option.

Thanks for the laugh.

About the piece d'occasion with Little Buck, I guess Martins deserves credit for trying to expand his audience, but I have to wonder how many people in the existing audience expected this, or the McCartney and Valentino collaborations, to be anything more than mediocre. That's a little depressing.

If anyone is interested NYCB has just opened up more seats for next week. I just purchased tickets for 5/11 fourth ring row A right in the middle. Personally I love those seats. They opened up seats for a number of performances.

Yes, as far as I know, since Kyra Nichols' retirement performance only Sara Mearns has danced the role created by Karin von Aroldingen. (How many other dancers have danced this role in the lifetime of the ballet, I wonder?) In any case, an important debut for Teresa Reichlen!

I opened the season by seeing two enjoyable performances of "Namouna" (Friday night and Sunday matinee). Robert Fairchild was amazing -- beautiful form, athleticism, and charisma. The cigarette girl is a perfect role for Ashley Bouder, showcasing her dazzling footwork and comic timing. Sara Mearns was her usual explosive self. I find Sterling Hyltin less interesting than Bouder or Mearns, although her technique seems to be up to any challenge. I'm having some trouble completely following the narrative of Namouna, though. Can anyone share their understanding of the plot? I gather that it's Fairchild and three women, and that in the end he winds up with the "right" one, but I don't really understand the obstacles, or what's going on with all the subsidiary characters (Ulbricht and his hench-maidens, the yellow-dress girls and the bathing-cap girls).

I'm enjoying Abi Stafford more than I used to. It was interesting seeing her dance side by side with Megan Fairchild. I'd swear Stafford has some way in which her body catches more light than Fairchild does.

I opened the season by seeing two enjoyable performances of "Namouna" (Friday night and Sunday matinee). Robert Fairchild was amazing -- beautiful form, athleticism, and charisma. The cigarette girl is a perfect role for Ashley Bouder, showcasing her dazzling footwork and comic timing. Sara Mearns was her usual explosive self. I find Sterling Hyltin less interesting than Bouder or Mearns, although her technique seems to be up to any challenge. I'm having some trouble completely following the narrative of Namouna, though. Can anyone share their understanding of the plot? I gather that it's Fairchild and three women, and that in the end he winds up with the "right" one, but I don't really understand the obstacles, or what's going on with all the subsidiary characters (Ulbricht and his hench-maidens, the yellow-dress girls and the bathing-cap girls).

I'm enjoying Abi Stafford more than I used to. It was interesting seeing her dance side by side with Megan Fairchild. I'd swear Stafford has some way in which her body catches more light than Fairchild does.

Cobweb -- I think there is about as much "plot" to Ratmansky's "Namouna" as there is to Balanchine's "Scotch Symphony" or "Baiser de la Fée" -- or even "Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2" -- which is to say, only the merest suggestion that there might actually be one. These ballets all evoke earlier works with real plots ("La Sylphide" in the case of Scotch Symphony. e.g.) but don't really recapitulate them. The jolly Highland Lassie who opens "Scotch Symphony" sure looks like she's going to turn out to be Effie, but then pretty much vanishes from the scene. The male corps first bars the way between the male lead and the object of his desire, then hands her over to him about 20 seconds later: it makes no sense in terms of plot, but we've seen that kind of drama in a score of other ballets where it does have narrative coherence, and it resonates with us somehow.

"Namouna" looks like the same kind of thing to me: we recognize bits of dramatic business from other ballets -- a male lead choosing between three women? hmmm ... Where have I seen that before? -- but here the elements only hang together by dream-logic. Putting the dancers in costumes evocative of 30s sci-fi films plays with our heads even more. If Daniel Ulbricht wore a crown and a doublet instead of what looks like an early aviator's helmet and a proto space suit, we'd probably decide he was the King in charge of whatever magical kingdom it was and not give it a moment's more thought: giving our hero a hard time is part of the job description. (The headgear that everyone except the male lead wears is genuinely disconcerting the first few times you see the ballet, and I assume that's the point.)

I adore "Namouna," but my one reservation is this: the woman our hero chooses at the end feels less than fully formed as a character. We know exactly what kind of woman the Cigarette Girl is, and would no matter who danced her. (I agree that Bouder is wonderful in the role.) Ditto Sara Mearns' Sultry Temptress. Both get a lot of distinctive material early on. But the girl who ultimately wins the guy seems barely sketched in until almost the end: she's a problem even Wendy Whelan, the role's originator, couldn't fix. I actually think that Hyltin does a commendable job with her: she gives her oddball gestures a kind of goofy ingenue innocence that makes her seem like the right choice after all. (It doesn't hurt that she and R. Fairchild have a ton of natural stage chemistry as a partnering team. They always look terrific together.) I really enjoyed Hyltin's performance on Sunday and hardly remembered that the role was created on Whelan -- I think she's done a fine job making the role her own.

Brief note: A wonderful debut last night by Ashly Isaacs in the 3rd movement of Symphony in C. Totally confident and at ease, making the choreography look like child's play... and with a beautiful smile, looking like she was having the time of her life. Very impressive, and I totally look forward to seeing her more!